Verdict: Mastram is a fictional biography of a porn writer which doesn't explore its potential well. The film is not that mast due to the underwhelming narrative but can be seen once for the inspired performances.

Verdict: Mastram is a fictional biography of a porn writer which doesn't explore its potential well. The film is not that mast due to the underwhelming narrative but can be seen once for the inspired performances. less

Plot: Rajaram, a bank clerk in a small town, dreams of traveling to Delhi and becoming a reputed writer. No one takes his litterateur aspirations seriously, least of all his uncle, who marries him off to the beautiful Renu. Although a simpleton, Renu wholeheartedly supports her husband’s ambition. Edged on by her encouragement, Rajaram starts stealing writing time from his humdrum work routine, and is eventually forced to leave his job, when his boss publicly humiliates him, and derides his fancy aspirations.To his utter surprise and delight, Renu unstintingly supports his decision, and starts doing odd jobs from home, while Rajaram begins to focus completely on his writing. But, being a stay-at-home writer doesn’t go down too well with prying neighbors, who are quick to pass judgment on other peoples’ lives. Rajaram becomes a butt of all jokes in the neighborhood.Turning a deaf ear to the all the snubs, Rajaram starts in earnest to show his work to several publishers. Each time he is rebuked. They tell him he should stick to writing text book material, and give up fanciful ideas of writing a novel. Finally, Rajaram encounters a fledgling publisher duo – Purohit and his brother-in-law, Bharti. They agree to publish Rajaram’s story about the plight of a small town girl. However, there is one hitch. Rajaram would have to add some necessary sensational elements to his dull tale – some `masala’, as they refer to euphemistically.

Mastram the film left me confused. The books which were popular much before I would have been interested in them, were gripping nonetheless when I ...
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Mastram the film left me confused. The books which were popular much before I would have been interested in them, were gripping nonetheless when I actually read them years later. Walking along a thin line of erotica and downright porn, Mastram books were a guilty pleasure many enjoyed. Sadly, the film on this delightful piece of nostalgia is underwhelming on many counts. Neither is this erotica, nor is it explicitly porn,and most importantly, it does lip service to the life and psyche of the man behind these stories.

Rajaram dreams of writing novels. Armed with an M.A. in Hindi he is shattered when his “literary” attempts fail to garner a publisher. He finds to his surprise his skill at writing erotica getting him ahead as a writer though. It pays well, he is published and the public laps up every edition of his fantasies with titles like “kanti bhai ka lolypop”. Things go sour though when he looks too close for inspiration, his own wife and best friend precisely, and things unravel.

Technically the story is a premise that, to use the films own metaphors, ripe with juices. A writer who has to resort to erotica and gets trapped in writing it never able to realise his dream of graduating to higher literature. A man coming to terms with the fact that he writes stuff all read in their privacy but would look down upon when in public. What goes on in the mind of a porn writer, how does he view the world around him? None of these questions are explored beyond the superficial wistful look at teenage fantasies through mastrams stories.

That the film infact does a lot. Objectify women without actually fleshing out the inner functioning of Rajaram is what thefilm does best. Abrupt jumps in events in his lives result in only the sleaze (thankfully tasteful in keeping with Mastram the books) coming out prominently. That is a let down since in today’s world a lot more is available much easily; one doesn’t really need to watch a film to get excited.

Mastram is slavaged by some fine performances though. Rahul Bagga and Tara both shine, despite the trite storyline and put life into the proceedings. Yet, is this worth spending money in a multiplex? I would say no. Watch it in the privacy of your homes. And make sure you have a copy of Mastram to make up for what the film does not deliver.

Comments

mAstram‬ :The concept is totally new to make a film on porn writing. Director is Abhishek Jaiswal, who is clear about his vision of his product. Le...
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mAstram‬ :The concept is totally new to make a film on porn writing. Director is Abhishek Jaiswal, who is clear about his vision of his product. Lead actor Rahul Bagga fits to the role of Rajaram who wrote the porn stories for earning money because the ordinary novel do not work. So, he writes the stories about his imagination that would happen around him. Story is quiet engaging but little bit slow ,too. Funny moments are many, when I laughed a lot. The dialogues of the discription of the stories are fabulous in pure Hindi. What happens with the struggling writers, this film also shows that. It was shoot in Himachal and looks very cool. There are three background songs, in which one is Achko Machko by Yo Yo Honey Singh.Overall, if you are a youngster, specially the boy, than and than you should go for this. The Boys would love it! 2.75*/5*.
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Comments

Mastram starts off very well but later on it gets boring........ Its better to watch the clips that are already on youtube. Few dialogues are cleve...
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Mastram starts off very well but later on it gets boring........ Its better to watch the clips that are already on youtube. Few dialogues are cleverly written, eg. "Aapne bola tha na thoda masala dalne, maine pura dabba dala hai". The runtime of d movie is 98 mins. but it feels like a 2hr film.